Think about how many times you’ve looked at billboards while moving in Ahmedabad – waiting at traffic lights, commuting from the office or just walking around. Countless times, right? Well, data supports it too – approximately 71% of people pay attention to roadside billboard advertisements.
Now, you might wonder, is digital marketing in Ahmedabad becoming obsolete? Not at all. This leads us to a vital question: which one is superior? This blog has all the answers – insights into OOH advertising and digital marketing, their pros and cons and what might work best for you.
Table of contents
- OOH (Hoarding) Advertising
- Pros of OOH Advertising
- Cons of OOH (Hoarding) Advertising
- What About Digital Marketing?
- Pros of Digital Marketing
- Cons of Digital Marketing
- 4 Main Differences between OOH Advertising and Digital Marketing
- The Verdict
- Frequently Asked Questions
OOH (Hoarding) Advertising
Hoardings are a type of out-of-home advertising, that involves displaying images and marketing text on large billboards (as shown in the image). While the style of advertising has evolved with digital billboards or hoardings, the essence remains the same — someone needs to pass by to see it. Let’s explore the pros and cons of it.
Pros of OOH Advertising
Pro 1: Target specific locations
You can place hoardings strategically in a specific location. Say you are a big jewellery showroom in Ahmedabad that will target busy crossroads to place your billboard; ensuring maximum visibility. This is also a hyperlocal way to target customers in that particular area.
Pro 2: Guaranteed audience
Unlike other forms of advertising such as television or radio, hoardings cannot be skipped. They are physically present in the environment and therefore have a guaranteed visibility. Your message will be seen by passersby, even if people only glance at a hoarding for a few seconds, this is still enough time for them to register the message and form an impression of the brand.
Pro 3: Brand awareness and brand recall
Well-designed hoardings with clear messaging can increase brand recognition through repeated exposure and that’s where smart and crisp copy plays an important role. Skilled copywriters can do that effectively and convey the message of your billboard in a short way. A pro tip would be to hire experts in content writing in Ahmedabad.
Cons of OOH (Hoarding) Advertising
Con 1: Not measurable
While it’s sure that your hoardings will get noticed, the exact impact and conversion rates are challenging to measure and as a result, you don’t get accurate results from hoardings.
Con 2: High cost
The cost of placing billboards is high. The bigger the dimension the more the charges. In Ahmedabad, it starts from Rs 20,000 and can go up to 1,30,000. Many factors contribute to the high cost of placing billboards. One factor is the high demand for billboard space, there is a lot of competition for the space, which drives up the price but despite the high cost, billboards can be an effective way to reach a large audience in Ahmedabad.
Con 3: Shorter messages
Due to the limited attention span; your message on a hoarding must be concise and visually appealing. For this work with your design agency to decide the core message to be highlighted and the colours in the advertisement.
Con 4: No changes can be made
This is probably one of the biggest cons of OOH advertising through hoardings. Once printed and displayed on the hoarding, ads cannot be modified, even for errors.
Con 5: Longer waiting times
Usually, the waiting times between the slots are high and you might have to wait for your turn. Let’s say it is the end of season sales and you want to place a hoarding for offers but the date and time given to you are a little later, now putting the ad doesn’t make sense after December has gone. The delays can impact timely promotions.
What About Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is the practice of promoting goods or services to online audiences, utilizing strategies such as social media campaigns, banner ads, or pay-per-click advertising. The demand for digital marketing in Ahmedabad has led to the growth of Digital Marketing Agency in Ahmedabad, meeting the increasing needs of businesses in the region.
Pros of Digital Marketing
Pro 1: You can target a specific audience
In OOH advertising, you target anyone who drives by, hoping that some of them might be your target demographic. Digital marketing, on the other hand, allows you to target your campaigns carefully. You can target age brackets, seller behaviours or even individual accounts.
Pro 2: It’s measurable
Digital marketing provides valuable insights into campaign performance, allowing you to track metrics like impressions, clicks, conversions and demographics of your audience.
Pro 3: Low cost
Digital marketing is not only low cost but also sees higher lead generations. Plus, inbound marketing costs 62 per cent less per lead than outbound techniques.
Pro 4: Creative flexibility
Social media marketing in Ahmedabad is becoming more and more popular among businesses of every size. As a part of digital marketing, it offers a variety of visual formats, including images, videos, trending audio and hashtags.
Cons of Digital Marketing
Con 1: People can ignore ads
Users may intentionally ignore or block digital advertisements with ad blockers, reducing their effectiveness.
Con 2: Competition
The digital marketing space is highly competitive, requiring creative strategies to stand out from the crowd.
Before we conclude which of the two works best, let’s look at the differences between both.
4 Main Differences between OOH Advertising and Digital Marketing
| OOH (Hoarding) Advertising | Digital Marketing |
|---|---|
| You can target specific locations | You can target a specific location and also specific audience |
| Guaranteed Visibility | Visibility with relevant data on clicks |
| Brand awareness and brand recall | Brand awareness and shareable content |
| Creativity in content and shorter messages. | Many types of content to choose from, creative and entertaining content. |
The Verdict
Now which one you choose depends on the specific goals, budget and target audience of your business. OOH advertising is suitable for businesses with a large budget seeking to achieve high visibility and brand recall while digital marketing is a versatile and cost-effective option for businesses of all sizes. However, it requires the help of a digital marketing agency to maintain an active online presence and adapt to evolving trends. If you are looking for one? You are at the right place. Email us at hello@florafountain.com and let’s chat about your business and how our digital expertise can grow it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Vasim Samadji is a partner at Flora Fountain, where he leads the Business and Marketing Strategy divisions. In a world where everyone is used to sugarcoating, his directness is often considered rude. But that shouldn't be a problem if you like the no-nonsense approach. Because he is a seasoned professional...